Background

You are a part of a savage but invisible conflict that began before
you were born. Any apparently neutral act today will be a gambit
within the total strategic situation.

The side that has the upper hand has worked tirelessly to prevent
any awareness of the conflict appearing.

We are partisans of the other side. This magazine is part of a
counter strategy. For this reason, while I write for clarity,
do not expect the total approach to be clear immediately.

From ASAN #3

What Is Our Class

If it is not yet obvious, this magazine is about class struggle
- but not the hackneyed version you see in left wing "worker's"
rags. We're not here to glorify the poor but to talk about what's
happening now. Most Americans aren't yet near the miserable conditions
of 19th century mill workers, but the rulers of this society now
are pushing us close enough to imagine them. Paraphrasing one
Eastern Airlines striker, "I can see it will come down to
a fight between us and them. I'm not ready for it yet but I can
see that it has to happen." Certain groups will have to
fight it out in the end; not when everyone is starving, but when
enough people can see where this society leads.

So who are we? Not Joe Worker. The slap-happy steel workers in
Miller commercials and the glorious mechanics from socialist realism
are really the same: dull louts who still respect work and have
a certain sexual relation to their tools. But how many people
want to be workers? No one joins a union to get closer to the
"common people" except a lefty politico. And most of
us aren't in unions. Even though a few jobs, like nursing or construction,
might still seem macho or caring, almost everyone works for money.
Even if they hate working, people need their wages to survive.

Class is not just a condition of dirty elbows and collars. Those
who must work; we exist today despite all the propaganda. There
might be great differences between an educated secretary and a
suburban auto worker. One might be a bohemian who is still proud
to wordprocess in the financial district while the other probably
only still assembles cars because they need money for their family.
- Or vice versa. Despite these differences they are both dispossessed
because they must sell their time simply to survive.